(Image Source: Facebook)

Famed Romanian conductor Camil Marinescu died on July 27, 2020 after a 3-week battle with the COVID-19 virus, his brother Ciprian Marinescu announced on Facebook.

Camil Marinescu was born in Bucharest in 1964 and graduated at the National Music University, with bassoon and conducting classes. Marinescu was the disciple of conductors Constantin Bugeanu, Cristian Mandeal, Mihai Brediceanu, and Pierre Dervaux.

He taught bassoon at the National University of Music in Bucharest and, for 10 years, held the position of resident conductor at the National Opera in Bucharest. Starting in 2003 he was the permanent guest conductor of the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester for three seasons.

Conducting both lyrical theater and symphonic repertoire, he was invited to conduct the Minneapolis Opera House in Minnesota (USA), the OSM Orchestra in Montreal, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk – Cologne, the Komische Oper in Berlin, and the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig, among others.

Camil Marinescu made recordings of George Enescu’s symphonic works, and also works of Janacek, Stravinsky, Bruckner, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy, Richard Strauss, and Ravel. Marinescu had a very wide and diverse conducting repertoire, ranging from the works of Giacomo Puccini to Richard Strauss. He also conducted contemporary symphonic music, and film, and jazz music.

Between 2012 and 2019 Camil Marinescu was the principal conductor of the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest. In a Facebook post, the George Enescu Philharmonic expressed its great sadness over the premature death of its former principal conductor.